1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hand-held kitchen tool, and more particularly to a mechanical food processor for tenderizing or processing meat, vegetables and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many tenderizers known in the art, including those which operate like a specialized hammer and those which have blades for piercing the food. An early example of this is by Andre Jaccard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,841, which discloses a hand operated meat tenderizer having multiple piercing elements held by a handle and a stripping plate to retract the elements. Another example of a hand held food processor having blades is U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,670 to Kujawski et al. which is directed toward making the disassembly and cleaning of a multi-bladed piercing tool easier.